Mrs. William Cutting (Gertrude Livingston, ca. 1776–1864)

De Madrazo y Garreta's portrait of Mrs. William Cutting (Gertrude Livingston, ca. 1776-1864) is a posthumous portrait — Gertrude Livingston died more than two decades before this work was painted in 1886, so it must have been based on an earlier image rather than a life sitting. Such retrospective portraits were common practice for wealthy families seeking to complete visual genealogies. The Cuttings' commissioning of de Madrazo to paint their forebear from a prior portrait or daguerreotype reflected their desire to maintain family visual continuity. Gertrude's Livingston connections placed her at the apex of American colonial and revolutionary-era patrician society.

Posthumous portraiture based on secondary sources often reveals its derivation in a certain conventionality of pose and modelling. De Madrazo nonetheless brings his characteristic academic polish to the project, the costume and setting rendered with his habitual care for material quality.